Photographer Sues Boss For Sexual Harrassment

Maryam Sayigh and Frederico Pignatelli

A female photographer is suing her former boss, the head of Pier 59 Studios at Chelsea Piers, for sexual harassment. Maryam Sayigh's $2 million suit accuses Federico Pignatelli of sunbathing nude in front of her, propositioning her, and forcing her to pick up women for him.

Sayigh, 35, says that she started working for Pignatelli as his executive assistant in June 2008, and was soon swept into a European business trip with him. She was cajoled into sleeping with him aboard his boat in the Mediterranean Sea, a decision she felt "was the only way she could stay at the company." She claims to only have slept with him twice, then rebuffed his later advances, and never got the promotion she thought she was promised: she says he promised that he would open a modeling agency for her to run and that she could be his No. 2 at Pier 59. But by February 2009, she was fired.

Pignatelli refutes her claims about promising her a job, and denies they ever had sex, saying she's too "unattractive" for him: "She's not the type of woman I would sleep with. I have plenty of women I can sleep with, so why would I sleep with an employee?" Pignatelli says that Sayigh was a disgruntled employee, a "low-quality woman," and that she was extorting him.

Sayigh responded to the badmouthing in the News today, showing off pictures of herself with Pignatelli in Saint Tropez, France, and the island of Sardinia: "If you're that into yourself, then you don't let yourself be seen in the most prestigious places in the world with an unattractive woman...I don't think I'm ugly."

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By Ben Yakas in News on September 1, 2010 10:54 AM

Comments [rss]

SuperWittySmitty

Where are you from, numbnuts??

nik13

She didn't get raise/promotion she felt she was entitled to. Typical NYC tale.

Jessie

wow the comments thus far are full of dickishness.

Look, there is a certain power dynamic with boss/employee. The boss has a lot of power and the employee has very little. If the boss comes onto said employee then the employee will feel pressure because of the power the boss has over them. If these allegations are true, the fact that she believed that she deserved more from the job are probably aggravating factors but the key here really is simple.

She allegedly didn't want any more of the shenanigans, and he kept pushing. You could even say he was harassing her about it. :-P

If the accusations are true are not, obviously will come out as things go. I will say that from his response he sounds like a dick.

rdayk

It is possible to be sexually harrassed by someone you've slept with in the past. Not saying she didn't act like a whore but that alone does not mean that he didn't harass her. Of course, she could be lying, no way to know.

Rocknrope

Abbondanza.

ItchyGoiter

"I don't think I'm ugly."

She is wrong.

And her photography sucks.

pd2009

Looks good to me, I'm in the photo business...want a job lil' lady? Oh...but you won't be able to sue later on since I don't have that kinda dough. She's 33 and got "cajoled" into sex with grandpa? What she'd do when she was 18? Blow the swim team so she could use the water fountain?

militza

looks like she slept with grandpa and didn't get rewarded.

John L

"She was cajoled into sleeping with him"

Whatever!

Either she willfully slept with him or was raped, there's no cajoling.

But sounds like a real asshole too, his defense is that she's not worthy of his dick? Please.

nicemarmot

Awww, her whoriness didn't work out for her? Poor baby. I lost my job to a woman who was completely unqualified, who slept with my boss and manipulated him. I was then fired and she's since hired 6 - that's right, 6! new employees to help her do the job I did by myself. Bosses are stupid for sleeping with their employees, and their employees are just as stupid for sleeping with them if they really think it will help their career. Maybe it will, but usually not.

Radbecca

Yeah, why would she agree to have sex with her boss? I feel sorry for people who believe that's how the world works. Wait. No I don't. She's an idiot.

TheTruthYouSeek

Ya know what, bitch? Then don't sleep with him. Sometimes that makes shit awkward. This suing is ridiculous. Women are psychotic sometimes.